A Yawn in Your E-Mail - March 2004

Here we go again! The springtime electronic yawn in your proverbial.

On 9th March our favourite band kicked off another year of gigs around the world with a sell out show at The Robin 2 in Bilston. I have not seen Earth Band play for over a year so quite a lot has changed that you may not notice if you regularly frequent their shows, as I know many of you do. For a start I had not seen Manfred's new keyboard set up before. Without doubt it sounds different and I feel is helping Manfred become slightly more adventurous in his playing again. Although the solos were not particularly strong at Bilston, perhaps because it was the first night I thought that overall he played as well as I have ever heard him play. When I foolishly commented on this but said he should always keep the moog I found myself facing the musical equivalent of "can you tell stork from butter?"

The idea was that Manfred played me the same thing twice: once through the moog and once not. I had to say which was which. I'm pretty sure he cheated and tried to make the second one sound more moog than the first. Fortunately I also cheated and thus got it right! The salutary lesson however is Manfred is of course right as he pretty well always is and I challenge anyone to tell the difference. None of us really could. Not only that but the solos, night two, The Stables Milton Keynes, were spot on as well.
They have a new soundman and on the Tuesday night I thought that both Mick and Manfred were a bit quiet although once again overall sound quality would put the vast majority of live bands to shame. On the Wednesday afternoon they were having terrible problems with the sound, a strong reminder of how much hard work goes in behind the scenes for every gig that sometimes we perhaps don't appreciate. To the credit of all the backroom boys the sound was great for the show, and the keyboards and guitar just fine. No doubt the following nights when I wasn't there were even better still.
Support for the lads at the two shows was from Meera Fe. The first night she played electric piano and was backed by double bass and percussion. At The Stables a better venue for her I thought, she played grand piano, which seemed to suit her beautifully crafted songs and haunting vocal style much better. She had just the double bass player to back her this time. The challenge for a support act to capture the attention of the Bilston crowd was not an easy one, but Meera managed to do just that. It was a lovely set both nights and her new album is a nice souvenir. If I had one slight criticism, I think she should chat to her audience more. The one time she did it came across so well. Still who cares everyone seemed to love her anyway.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

The set was different in part from when I last saw them. At Bilston Manfred made a joke of the fact that the set list hasn't changed that much. He introduced the one completely new song with his usual self deprecating humour and also told the audience they had moved the order of songs round a bit to try to fool people. As someone who wants things to keep moving on a bit, I missed the moog opening. There is no pleasing some people is there? I haven't heard them do 'Spirits' for a long time and this is a really good and very strong start, played in the traditional way with Mick doing much of the vocals. This may not be new to our continental friends but it's new to me. 'Castles' has changed again as well. This is amongst my favourites and long may they keep playing it. The ending part of 'Martha' has changed yet again since I last saw them whilst at Milton Keynes the solo was great. Then we had 'Shelter' and 'Carol' and then a new song, 'Mars' which I loved. It's very loud combining Gustav Holst's planets with other elements, to make a great peace of music. Can't wait for the album! I enjoyed 'Dancing in the Dark', which I claim not to like, and then it was familiar territory for the rest of the show, with the exception of the instrumental 'For You', which I have never heard before. This is reminiscent of 'Cloudy Eyes' from the Messin' album, in style at least.
There was plenty of other little changes. 'She Was', has changed a lot for example, whilst 'Demolition Man' has more keyboard infills than before.
Despite all this, people are I'm told still moaning on the message board or at gigs about it being mostly the same old set. It might be just my imagination but if body language is anything to go by, a small minority of hard core fans display what seemed like grim determination not to enjoy themselves, unless by some miracle the set has changed completely, which let's face it, is never going to happen. True I would have liked one or maybe two more new song and perhaps the revival of a couple of different oldies. I favour the Good Earth myself and Captain Bobby complete with Glorified Magnified. (Imagine that on the new rig and with Geoff Dunn on drums. Awesome!)
You will all have your own ideas on the set list. Feel free to share them. I am convinced for example that Noel would do Come Tomorrow the 1965 hit really well. That's how sad I am these days.
Despite all of this I give a word of warning. If you had told me after the 1986 tour (or Steve Kinch for that matter!) that we would still be enjoying this band live in concert in 2004, I would have laughed out loud.
If you had gone on to tell me that they would still be as good as any band live and better than most, I might have questioned that too.
It's over twenty years since the Somewhere in Afrika tour! This cannot go on forever folks. Manfred is already looking at other things and sooner rather than later Martha's Madman is going to get mad for the last time. To make matters worse I find time moves very fast nowadays. It seems only a short time ago that I took John Arkle and Graeme Yates to see the second gig by the then newly reunited MMEB with Noel on vocals and Clive on drums at Manchester in 1991. The first two of many good friends I have since made whilst following this band about Europe. Even then they were supposed to be doing just a handful of gigs with the Beachboys, before embarking on something more jazz orientated.
The first two gigs this year were great, and I'm sure we are in for another year of great shows. We will look back on now as a time to be treasured. Don't wake up one morning to find you missed out 'cause you can never turn the clock back. Enjoy it whilst you can, that's what I say. I'm going to.

The Times they are Changing

A good example of what I'm getting at can be found in the Workhouse Studios. This indestructible monument to Manfred's recording career is about to become a pile of rubble and shortly after that a supermarket. (For pictures asnd more details see Farewell to The Workhouse ).
I am not strong on the history of this place, which at least for as long as I have known it, has taken on the outward appearance of a condemned building. This was of course deliberate to discourage a spate of break-ins.
Manfred bought the Maximum Sound studio with Mike Hugg in the late sixties and much of Earth Bands output as well as the three Chapter 3 albums were worked on here. My own first visit in the early 90's was to record the Plain Talking CD. A fan since 1964 I had only recently become involved with the band and the founding of the fan club, so I was incredibly nervous.
I don't think Manfred would mind me saying that he is not always known as the easiest person to interview. He was thankfully very kind to me, so the end result was pretty good. I then spent an enjoyable day with Ian Tompson cutting out all the dud bits.
Since then I have had some very happy times at the studio. I spent many enjoyable hours listening to Manfred mixing 'Fire' and 'The Price You Pay' and was even allowed to think I was helping, which of course I wasn't.
I watched him add organ to 'Tumbling Ball', explain how he used the computer to my already music mad son. Slowly I began to appreciate some of the longwinded and laborious processes that go in to the recording of an album.
There's a dead baby in reception Manfred told us that day referring to my sleeping daughter Jennifer who is now nearly 12. I told you time flies.
We did one days filming at the Workhouse, for the BBC Good Earth thing, having spent the previous couple of days bonding with a T.V. crew on a remote hill in mid Wales. More recently I spent many hours with the surprisingly patient Mr Tompson, (not really) going through shoe boxes full of dats to uncover treasures for the boxed set. (Sorry didn't mean to mention the box set!) I had Ian going through seemingly endless different mixes of his favourite tune (not!) and then we didn't use it in the end.
For the fan in me, perhaps the most memorable visit was a day they had been rehearsing. When I arrived late morning, Manfred told me with exaggerated relish that I had just missed the rehearsal and he was about to piss off home. Disappointed but by no means phased I set about the jobs I had come down to do. An hour or so later Manfred put his head round the door and said that if I wanted to hear some music it had to be now as he was going.
We all filed upstairs, Noel, Mick, Steve and Clive to a room no bigger than my own sitting room, where I was treated to impromptu performances of Miss You and Demolition Man.
I have been to the studio twice to see Ian Tompson this year and by my second visit it was virtually a shell. The last recording made there was I think Meera Fe new album produced by Ian. She is currently touring the UK as support for Earth Band. It is a lovely and innovative piece of work and a fitting end for a studio that as well as Manfred's stuff has produced so much good music. My own personal favourite album to come out of the Workhouse is without doubt Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties and I would often wonder, if Manfred would have noticed a small gap on the wall if the gold disc of that album had been borrowed!
Pat King took some good photos during the recording of Watch whilst the studio appears in the fan club video, part of which is now available on the Evolution DVD.
So an era comes to a close and the Workhouse will soon be gone forever. It was as I said on the outside a scruffy building in a less than salubrious part of town. Inside were largely functional surroundings. These were decorated with a giant painting or mural and Manfred's numerous gold discs as well as those of other artists who had used the facilities. The Workhouse was always a very well equipped recording studio. It is difficult not to become nostalgic or feel a little sad at its demise. Help me, I'll be going to sixties revival shows next!
However life as they say goes on and we had our first look at Manfred's new studio The Waterworks. Much smaller than the Workhouse, which seemed to have little nooks and crannies all over the place the Waterworks boasts a state of the art recording desk and everything else imaginable. All the gold discs are back up and already the place has a warm and comfortable feel to it. It takes its name from the river Thames that runs close by.

Speaking of nostalgia

I notice that the Blues Band have some kind of an anniversary tour this year, which I would strongly commend to one and all. I was only thinking the other day how loads of people worryingly about my age, pile into Manfreds concerts to get their nostalgia fix. Who am I to argue, I like steam trains, and according to the national press and media you don't get much sadder than that. The only thing is that at a Manfreds concert you get this very distorted version of nostalgia from what I have been told, if you really are a Manfred Mann group fan from the sixties. It's a bit like when I was a lad all steam engines were nice and clean and shiny. No they bloody weren't they were filthy dirty mucky things that leaked steam and soot from every orifice. Go to your average railway museum and they are pretty well always polished up a treat, just like they never were.
The Manfreds from what I gather play all the hits and then some, but in the sixties even with all the hits fresh and new, most of the live act was rhythm and blues. When I saw the D'abo line-up at the peak of the groups pop period, they did about five hits. One of these they had changed completely the remaining four being rushed through, like a necessary evil at the end of the show. For the remainder of the time having ignored all the Paul Jones hits completely they performed heavy rhythm and blues with a strong jazz element like the first band had done. So if like me you were a true Manfred Mann fan in the sixties and are not looking for a kind of nostalgia that never existed, then you are much more likely to enjoy the Blues Band.
I mean no disrespect to the Manfreds. There is a big market for sixties nostalgia bands and they have a far better claim than many doing the circuit nowadays, with four genuine and ridiculously young Manfreds still around. Mike Hugg is one of the most underrated musicians in the music industry and D'abo is at last getting the recognition he deserves as a bloody brilliant songwriter. Why oh why did Manfred Mann not record and release Handbags please somebody tell me? With the Blues Band however you still get the multi talented front man Paul Jones still looking good after all these years and doing what he does best of all, a blues shouter and perhaps one of the best harmonica players around. There is Tom McGuiness as well on blues guitar. With all this you can wallow in the nostalgia of something if not quite the same, much closer to what Manfred Mann was really about in the sixties.

"No mate I know Hendrix is cool but you want to here the B-side of that new Manfred one. It's not about My Name is Jack honestly. I mean they have written film music for heavens sake and some cool jazz for the TV thing. What's it called The Gorge? Watch them on Colour Me Pop if you don't believe me they do this five minute instrumental thing called Golden Flower with vibes and piano. It's a bit like the one they did on the Julie Felix show. They're great when they play jazz, honest and when they play blues: I have some radio recordings you should listen to. Hoochie Coochie Man, Nitty Gritty stuff like that. They did this wonderful new song on John Peels show called Handbags and Gladrags. These are talented guys mate. Listen to the Five Faces great album."

I was so relieved when Chapter 3 arrived. Nobody except me liked it at first and nobody understood it, but at least it was cool. It took me years to admit I liked My Name is Jack just a little bit and I still wouldn't play it very often.

Colosseum Live and what it's got to do with Manfred Mann.

How can I cleverly work a mention of one of my favourite bands into this Yawn? I was able to go and see them play at the Jazz Café earlier this year. Well for starters Jon Hiseman might have done this jazz thing with Manfred had they been able to match up diaries . There was always I suppose a fat chance of that happening, with both these musicians in so much demand at the moment. I am still disappointed that for now at least it has not been possible. Jon is for me the best drummer around and still plays his incredible solo, worth the price of a Colosseum ticket on its own. Despite this I fear that you might not let me review this concert with such a tenuous link.
How about Chris Farlowe then? He is the unusual and distinctive vocalist for Colosseum. His voice is often more another instrument than anything else. He happens to have recorded Mike D'Abos Handbags and Gladrags before Rod Stewart did and almost had a hit with it, a good three decades and more, before the Stereophonic did have a hit with it.
If that is not a good enough reason, Jack Bruce legendary bass player and member of Manfred Mann for a fleeting moment somewhere in the mid sixties, wrote a couple of Colosseum's best known songs, 'Rope Ladder To The Moon' and 'Theme From An Imaginary Western'.
It was Manfred's then manager Harry Maloney who discovered Jon's new band and they joined Chapter 3 on the famous spiral record label Vertigo, before later joining MMEB on the Bronze label.
If none of that impresses you, some of which I only realised myself recently then I doubt either that most of you would be concerned or bothered that the bands legendary and much loved sax player, Dick Heckstall-Smith was unable to be at the concert due to illness. I was very disappointed. (Dick's the one who often plays two Saxes at once to great effect I might add.) I have been a big fan since he was part of John Mayall's band and have records featuring his saxophone playing with the likes of Alexis Corner, Jack Bruce, Graham Bond and Ginger Baker going back to the very birth of British blues. A birth that also involved the likes of the Stones, The Yard birds, The Animals and of course the Mann Hugg Blues Brothers.

Who saw the front cover of record collector a month back featuring the twenty albums, which scared the world? (Or something like that anyway.)

The excellent Five Faces of Manfred Mann, which I often bang on about, was one of those albums pictured on the cover and as I am always saying still a great album. Paul Jones of the great radio blues show and very excellent Blues Band was interviewed inside . It was however a disappointing interview in my opinion to say the least.

I was gutted that I wasn't going to see Dick in action. Although the band has been reformed for some years, (longer by far than they were together to start with.) this was to be the first time I had seen them since about 1972!
They have a great lead guitarist Dave "Clem" Clempson, (who played on Soft Vengeance by the way.)
The big connection however came in the form of Dick's temporary replacement, Mrs Hiseman better known to us all as legendary jazz saxophonist Barbara Thompson. I am a big fan of this lady and have a number of her own albums and a super video of her own small band culled from some German TV show in the good old days when I could get such things. I was a fan before she did that wonderful solo on 'Singing the Dolphin', followed by the one on Chance and long before her brilliant work on Plains Music, but have unforgivably never seen her play live. I had been told that she was now ill with Parkinsons and was no longer doing live work although still composing music. As you can't turn the clock back I was stuck with that.
So my disappointment at Dick's absence was countered by my delight at seeing Barbara walk out on stage at the Jazz Café. Her playing as distinctively her as ever was beautiful and that is a huge understatement. She never tried to do Dick's thing but played everything her own way, every solo a little gem. She has such a light and melodic style of playing that I think is impossible not to be moved by. Just in case we were still disappointed that Dick was absent he managed to play one of his own distinctive solos without even being there. In the end we almost got the best of both worlds. I haven't heard how Dick is doing but I am sure you will all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery.
So if you can, catch this band, if they are playing near you. Like Earth Band, Colosseum have made some good albums including their excellent new one on Temple Music called Tomorrows Blues, (www.temple-music.com) but they are best appreciated live.
I do not have much solid news for you at the moment, although I am hoping to have some in the next few weeks . The album is now due out later in the year. The wait goes on. With the new album due soon it is unlikely anything will happen with regard to the box set before next year.
We are following a band that are still playing live and are still sounding really good. Manfred is still making new and I think innovative music even if he still can't help taking a bit longer looking perhaps for just one more hit. This week was a good reminder of all the fun I have had over the last few years and all the good friends Carol and I have made.

Long may it continue.

Another music press headline for you was Elgarmann alluding to the new Elgar album recorded by the Halle orchestra. Manfred has apparently owned this previously never performed music since the sixties. I will try to review this with the help of my son for the next yawn. The news item in question went on to say that there might be a new album later this year . Now where have I heard that one before!

Other News

Matt Irving, once of MMEB is out and about with his latest band in the UK over the next month or so. If anyone would like to catch up with Matt, have a look at www.los-pacaminos.com , the band are fronted by Paul Young who of course once auditioned for the lead singer job with the Earth Band (yet another connection!)

Andy.

Question Time. Can you name a previous classical work that Manfred was involved in and also featured Jon lHiseman as a huntsman? (Click here for details of how to enter)
Maybe I can persuade Helen to donate a copy of the Elgar album to the first correct answer picked at random. Be quick cause by my standards that's an easy one!

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